Chinese President Xi Jinping is deemed certain to be re-elected as the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party for another five years in this fall's party congress, which is held once every five years. Xi's grip on power as a "core leader" now seems unshakable. His authoritarian political approach on the strength of increased concentration of power around him, however, risks breeding sources of long-term instability. Xi should use his unrivaled power instead to pursue democratic reforms to widen the scope of people's political freedom, which will contribute to making China a more trusted major power open to the rest of the world.
Xi's anti-corruption campaign that began when he took the helm in 2012 has earned him popular support. His hard-line diplomacy has been punctuated by China's increasing assertive maritime postures, such as its alleged militarization of disputed territories in the South China Sea. But while he pushes political regimentation at home, including a crackdown on dissident speech, sources of popular discontent such as the growing rich-poor divide and environmental problems remain deep-seated and threaten to grow as the country's once breakneck-speed economic growth rapidly decelerates.
Recent developments in China point to Xi tightening his grip on power even further and simultaneously stepping up his crackdown on reformist elements. In a plenum of its Central Committee in October, the Communist Party upgraded Xi's status by declaring him to be a "core leader" — a position that sets him apart from others in the party leadership — and marked the declaration down in an official document. Although the party justifies concentration of power in Xi as a useful means of furthering party unity, reform-oriented officials and intellectuals charge that it would undermine intraparty democracy and collective leadership. Even in the field of economic policies — which was the domain of the No. 2 party leader Premier Li Keqiang — Xi has begun since last year to come to the fore and take the lead in key decisions.